The Penn Stater Daily — Sept. 26, 2013

Icebreaker: When I toured the Pegula Ice Arena back in February, Joe Battista ’83 painted an amazingly vivid picture of all the amenities (a synthetic practice rink! skate-repair rooms! Subway!) that had yet to be built. So checking out this slideshow, posted yesterday on pennlive.com, felt a little like deja vu. So cool to see it all come together.

Sorry, sunbathers: Construction on the HUB-Robeson Center is in full swing, and the bookstore is…on the lawn. While the Barnes and Noble-operated bookstore is undergoing renovations, 28 trailers on the HUB lawn will serve as the temporary location until July, giving former sunbathers and frisbee-lovers plenty of time to catch up on their reading.

Book talk: Speaking of books, two new titles from Penn Staters are making news. Chip Kidd’s latest, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, is an intro to graphic design for kidds kids. “I was out of my comfort zone,” Kidd ’86 tells Wired mag in this Q&A. “but it helped me to rethink everything about graphic design again—never a bad thing.” Also, Penn State Harrisburg prof John Haddad‘s new book, America’s First Adventure in China, explores the origins of America’s relationship with China. Haddad researched the book during his Fulbright grant experience in China in 2010-11, where he taught American studies, pop culture and literature at the University of Hong Kong.

Sunrise, sunset: Mount Nittany (@MtNittany) has been sharing some fantastic photos on Twitter lately, like this lovely sunrise, taken by meteorology student Dakota Smith (@weatherdak). Almost makes you want to wake up early and see it in person, doesn’t it? Almost.